Connecting to ASM through the TNS Listener from a

Client Desktop
by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

Contents

1. Overview
2. Modify the listener.ora for the ASM Instances
3. Add ASM Entries to the tnsnames.ora File on the Client Machine
4. Bounce the TNS Listener
5. Test Access to ASM from the Client Machine

Overview

By default, the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) does not configure
the TNS listener to accept client requests to an ASM instance running from a different
node. Access will be denied for clients like SQL*Plus, Perl DBI:DBD, and JDBC
when attempting to connect to an ASM instance from a node other than the node
running the ASM instance. When the service is created for an ASM instance, its status
is BLOCKED:
[oracle@linux1 ~]$ lsnrctl status LISTENER_LINUX1 | grep ASM
Service "+ASM" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "+ASM1", status BLOCKED, has 1 handler(s) for this
service...
Service "+ASM_XPT" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "+ASM1", status BLOCKED, has 1 handler(s) for this
service...
This limitation puts restrictions on scripts and other client tools that want to monitor
and manage an ASM instance from a different node. Getting around this restriction
however is an easy task that involves manually creating a service name for the ASM
instance.

This article presents the steps required to access an ASM instance through the TNS
listener from a client desktop. The database used in this article is a two-node Oracle
RAC 10g clustered database where in fact there will two ASM instances (one ASM
instance for each Oracle instance in the cluster). The database version is Oracle 10g
Release 2 (10.2.0.3.0) running on CentOS 4.5 (or RHEL 4.5):

Node 1
Machine Name: linux1.idevelopment.info
Oracle SID: orcl1
ASM SID: +ASM1
ASM Global DB Name (service name): +ASM
 Node 2
Machine Name: linux2.idevelopment.info
Oracle SID: orcl2
ASM SID: +ASM2
ASM Global DB Name (service name): +ASM

Modify the listener.ora for the ASM Instances

The first step is to modify the listener.ora file for the ORACLE_HOME running
ASM on all nodes in the RAC cluster by adding a new service:
Node 1 - (listener.ora)
LISTENER_LINUX1 =
(DESCRIPTION_LIST =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux1-vip)(PORT = 1521)(IP
= FIRST))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 192.168.1.100)(PORT =
1521)(IP = FIRST))
)
)

SID_LIST_LISTENER_LINUX1 =
(SID_LIST =
(SID_DESC =
(SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)
(ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1)
(PROGRAM = extproc)
)
(SID_DESC =
(GLOBAL_DBNAME = +ASM)
(SID_NAME = +ASM1)
(ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1)
)
)
Node 2 - (listener.ora)
LISTENER_LINUX2 =
(DESCRIPTION_LIST =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux2-vip)(PORT = 1521)(IP
= FIRST))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 192.168.1.101)(PORT =
1521)(IP = FIRST))
)
)

SID_LIST_LISTENER_LINUX2 =
(SID_LIST =
(SID_DESC =
(SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)
(ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1)
 (PROGRAM = extproc)
)
(SID_DESC =
(GLOBAL_DBNAME = +ASM)
(SID_NAME = +ASM2)
(ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1)
)
)

Add ASM Entries to the tnsnames.ora File on the Client Machine

The next step is to add ASM entries to the tnsnames.ora file on the client machine
that will be connecting to the ASM instance(s). The client machine in this example is
named alex.idevelopment.info. A separate tnsnames entry will be created for each
ASM instance in the two-node RAC. The two tnsnames entries for this example are
named ORCL1_ASM1 and ORCL2_ASM2:
Client Node - (tnsnames.ora)
ORCL =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux1-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux2-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(LOAD_BALANCE = yes)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = orcl.idevelopment.info)
)
)

ORCL1 =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux1-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = orcl.idevelopment.info)
(INSTANCE_NAME = orcl1)
)
)

ORCL2 =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux2-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = orcl.idevelopment.info)
(INSTANCE_NAME = orcl2)
)
)

ORCL1_ASM1 =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux1-vip)(PORT = 1521))
)
 (CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = +ASM)
)
)

ORCL2_ASM2 =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux2-vip)(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = +ASM)
)
)

ORCL_TAF =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux1-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = linux2-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(LOAD_BALANCE = yes)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = orcl_taf.idevelopment.info)
(FAILOVER_MODE =
(TYPE = SELECT)
(METHOD = BASIC)
(RETRIES = 180)
(DELAY = 5)
)
)
)

Bounce the TNS Listener

The final step is to bounce the Oracle TNS Listener. Remember that the listener
process will need to be bounced on both of the nodes in the RAC cluster:
# -----------
# FROM linux1
# -----------
[oracle@linux1 ~]$ lsnrctl stop LISTENER_LINUX1
[oracle@linux1 ~]$ lsnrctl start LISTENER_LINUX1

# -----------
# FROM linux2
# -----------
[oracle@linux2 ~]$ lsnrctl stop LISTENER_LINUX2
[oracle@linux2 ~]$ lsnrctl start LISTENER_LINUX2
After restarting the TNS listener, the new service should be available from both nodes
in the RAC cluster:
# -----------
# FROM linux1
# -----------
[oracle@linux1 ~]$ lsnrctl status LISTENER_LINUX1 | grep ASM
Service "+ASM" has 2 instance(s).
 Instance "+ASM1", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this
service...
Instance "+ASM1", status BLOCKED, has 1 handler(s) for this
service...
Service "+ASM_XPT" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "+ASM1", status BLOCKED, has 1 handler(s) for this
service...

# -----------
# FROM linux2
# -----------
[oracle@linux2 ~]$ lsnrctl status LISTENER_LINUX2 | grep ASM
Service "+ASM" has 2 instance(s).
Instance "+ASM2", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this
service...
Instance "+ASM2", status BLOCKED, has 1 handler(s) for this
service...
Service "+ASM_XPT" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "+ASM2", status BLOCKED, has 1 handler(s) for this
service...

Test Access to ASM from the Client Machine

After the new ASM service(s) have been added and the TNS listener successfully
restarted, test access to the ASM instances from the client machine using SQL*Plus:
ORA10G on alex: sqlplus "sys/<ASM_SYS_PASSWORD>@orcl1_asm1 as sysdba"
@asm_diskgroups.sql

Disk Group Sector Block Allocation

Name Size Size Unit Size State Type
Total Size (MB) Used Size (MB) Pct. Used
-------------------- ------- ------- ------------ ----------- ------
--------------- -------------- ---------
FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA 512 4,096 1,048,576 MOUNTED EXTERN
596,985 339 .06
ORCL_DATA1 512 4,096 1,048,576 MOUNTED EXTERN
597,017 40,784 6.83

--------------- --------------
Grand Total:
1,194,002 41,123

ORA10G on alex: sqlplus "sys/<ASM_SYS_PASSWORD>@orcl2_asm2 as sysdba"

@asm_diskgroups.sql

Disk Group Sector Block Allocation

Name Size Size Unit Size State Type
Total Size (MB) Used Size (MB) Pct. Used
-------------------- ------- ------- ------------ ----------- ------
--------------- -------------- ---------
FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA 512 4,096 1,048,576 MOUNTED EXTERN
596,985 339 .06
ORCL_DATA1 512 4,096 1,048,576 MOUNTED EXTERN
597,017 40,784 6.83
--------------- --------------
Grand Total:
1,194,002 41,123